Lou Paduano | Urban Fantasy Novels | Sci-Fi Crime Series

Writing Update – April 27th, 2021

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Welcome back to the show that never ends! Or, at least, the writing life that never lets up. It’s been a couple months since the last writing update, so let’s get to it.

Writing Update

I’m not gonna lie, it was tough to get back into the swing of drafting again. I wrote The Final Gauntlet last March. That was the last time I dug into a first draft, and for the first few weeks of getting back into things it showed.

I was RUSTY AS HELL.

The story might have been solidified during the outline/script part of my process, but holy hell did it take some effort to form full sentences.

I’m doing much better with it this month.

DSA Season Two

I’m past the halfway point in the drafting phase. Three of the six episodes are DONE.

I am in the thick of DSA Season Two, Book Four this week. It’s called Cracked Chrysalis and deals with fallout from the very first DSA book. Answers about the trees from The Clearing start to come to light here. The Witness is at the heart of the mystery, but so is another threat from the first season. Those threads from the beginning of DSA start to take shape in this book, and will have an effect on events in Season Three and Season Four!

I can’t wait to be able to share more.

Trying out a new drafting method

I’ve written about this previously. I don’t write books in a linear fashion. Because I have the script to help guide me, I tend to hit shorter scenes first, or even scenes where I have a very clear image in my head. Knocking these off the list early gives me an opportunity to feel the characters/themes out to handle the larger story moments better.

Recently, I’ve tried to be more linear. I still hop around the draft like a jackrabbit. However, now I have been trying to follow a specific plotline from start to finish. I start with the B or C plot, leaving the main plot for last.

I’m not 100% when it comes to this method. There are days where I want to dig into the action, or am all about the dialogue of a particular scene. So I still jump from place to place, but I have been better about flowing a little more smoothly from beginning to middle to end.

What’s coming up?

DSA owns the next few months. When I finish the sixth book of the season, I hope to be able to go back and really make the season shine all the way through.

My original hope to have something to you this year. 2020 really made that impossible. This year hasn’t been much better in that regard, but I’m trying to come up with a clear plan going forward.

The release schedule will definitely be different for DSA this time around. There will be more time to breathe between installments, both for you as readers and for me.

There is also Army in the Obelisk to finish up, so lots going on this year.

No blog next week! I’ll be recovering from the vaccine, and plan to take it easy for a bit.

Talk soon. Happy reading!

April 2021 Promotions

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It’s been a bit since I put one of these together. This month is Indie Book Month, and to celebrate I’ve joined a number of my fellow authors in some incredible box set deals. Check out the April Promotions below!

April Promotions

This month marks the pre-order launch of DSA: The Complete First Season. Up until launch day, you can get all six books in the season PLUS the digital exclusive, The Grissom File, for only $2.99

On launch day it jumps to $4.99 and at the end of June it will be regularly priced at $9.99. So be sure to pre-order this bad boy while you can.

Greystone: The Complete First Cycle

Greystone refused to be left out of the festivities. This month, the box set is on sale for $2.99 as well. Snag all five books in the series now!

Box Set Deals

This last promotion can be found on both Bookfunnel and StoryOrigin.

Bookfunnel Box Set Deal

StoryOrigin Box Set Deal

Happy Reading!

It’s a light blog today, I know. I’m diving into a new draft today. One that longtime readers will find very exciting. I’m still living in DSA Season Two. This newest installment relates to a certain town from The Clearing, and some very strange trees…

Hmmm, I wonder whatever happened to those trees?

Stay tuned for more info!

Greystone Series Sale and Update

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You always come back to your first. That’s a rule in life. For me, there will always be a special place in my heart for Signs of Portents. It was the first book I felt confident enough to publish. It was the first pure idea I was able to bring to fruition – to create a coherent beginning, middle, and end.

This month, I’m celebrating all things Greystone with a sale on the series. All five books are only $0.99 each and the box set is 50% off this month as well.

Greystone Series Sale

Follow Soriya Greystone and Detective Greg Loren as they battle the myths, legends and monsters of Portents. There is a sweeping arc in the background of all five books that culminates in A Circle of Shadows.

Head over to Amazon now and check out the series page.

Box Set Fans can grab the entire five book epic for $4.99.

Series Update

My schedule has been manic of late. There are so many outlines and notes scattered across my desk. Greystone is part of this mess, I assure you.

Coming later this year is Army in the Obelisk, the 12-part serial set in the early days of Soriya and Loren’s working relationship.

Next year will see the release of Alpha and Omega, Book Six of the Greystone Saga. It recounts Soriya and Loren’s very first meeting and their handling of the Kindly Killer case that is hinted at in the background of most of the books.

Book Six also sets up the Second and Final Phase of the series. Books 7 through 10 contain a mega-arc much like the story of Beth’s murder in the first five books. There is a massive mystery to be unraveled in between the craziness that inhabits each and every Greystone story.

Everything is mapped out. Everything is swimming inside my head, threatening to break through at any given moment. I love that feeling. That’s when I know the book is ready: when it demands to be drafted. When every character’s actions are so refined and true that it will stand up to not only my scrutiny but yours as well.

I know this is a long term timeline. I know you want and NEED more books. That feeling is matched on my end as well. 2020 was a setback to be sure, but the stories are coming.

You’re going to freaking love what comes next. Guaranteed.

The Medusa Coin is now in audiobook!

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What? A new Greystone novel available in audiobook? YES!!! The Medusa Coin is out now for your listening pleasure.

Another J.S. Arquin masterpiece

I swear the man just gets better and better. J.S. nails every nuance of the story. Every choice he makes, be it voice, accent, or inflection is absolutely spot on. Give the book a listen now through Amazon or through Audible and you’ll see what I mean.

Head over to Amazon and start listening.

Or visit Audible today.

The Medusa Coin

Death has come to the city of Portents.

Dozens have fallen before a mysterious menace hiding among them. Their only connection is the grisly condition of their bodies — hollowed-out chasms where their eyes used to be.

Setting aside the aging case on his wife’s murder, Detective Greg Loren has returned to the city with the task of stopping the bearer of the Medusa coin — an artifact with power over Death himself — from continuing to slaughter the people of Portents.

Soriya, no longer able to control the enigmatic Greystone, grapples with the decision to forge ahead in the case on her own, leaving Loren behind. But without the two counterbalancing each other, Death may be the force that levels them both.

Lou Paduano’s The Medusa Coin, the third exciting installment in the Greystone series, promises to raise the stakes to even greater heights, offering glimpses of a darker side to Portents listeners never imagined.

Still one of my favorite books.

Listening to this one brought me back to those early days in 2016. (Soooooo long ago.) This was the book where I finally realized I knew what I was doing. It was the moment I figured out the end of the first cycle, and had my roadmap for the series.

To hear it come to life is a dream come true. I hope you enjoy it.

Happy listening!

End of the Year Wrap Up

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This year started out quite differently than it ended. I imagine it is the same for most people out there. 2020 kicked the ever-loving crap out of me.

The triumphs

I published FIVE books this year. It takes my breath away every time I think about that. So many long nights, so many revisions and edits and headaches and tears and then more tears when each and every one finally came together. Just a whirlwind of emotions when I think about these books.

On top of these five, two audiobooks came out with a third in the review process for early 2021. J.S. Arquin has done an incredible job bringing Portents to life. I am so grateful for all his hard work on the project and can’t thank him enough for reaching out and suggesting the partnership.

The second half of the DSA’s opening season launched last spring. With each one I quietly freaked out. I waited for the readers to call me out for the hack I believed myself to be. See, the DSA is the largest story I’ve ever tried to tell. I don’t know the end, and coming from a plot-oriented writer like me that is scary as hell. Yet, that was what keeps me loving this series, keeps me dreaming up new twists with each installment. It’s all about the unknown, about something bigger out there than we can imagine.

I’m immensely proud of the season. It was a lot of years in the making.

Greystone-in-Training finished up its run over the back half of the year. That was never the intention. My original premise was to launch one per year. The plan was that would give me time to map out the rest of the main series, so there wouldn’t be a large gap between Greystone novels.

Soriya wouldn’t leave me the hell alone though. She hasn’t since then either. Greystone is going to be a big part of my 2021 writing schedule.

The failures

These are what I perceive them to be. Everyone else is quite understanding about how my schedule has been ripped from me. I, on the other hand, always push myself harder than I should.

The Final Gauntlet was written back in March. It was one of the most challenging drafts I’ve ever put together, thanks to the outside world collapsing at the time. I think the book came out better than it should have given the circumstances, yet I’ll always wonder if I could have done more – made it more – if the world would have just kept on trucking.

Since then, there has been little in the way of drafting. That’s never happened before, not since I started this crazy train over 5 years ago. There has always been a project on my desk, always another edit to work on, something in the way of writing. But quarantine took over.

More than that, teaching took over. The kiddos won out over my priorities, as they always should.

The sad fact is that 2021 is going to be the lightest year of my career in terms of releases. Where I hoped to launch DSA Season Two and Greystone Book Six, where I thought Army in the Obelisk would give readers something to talk about every month next year, now there will be silence for a time.

Only for a time.

Everything is still here, jammed in the ol’ noodle and waiting for release. I’ve outlined twelve books this year, one of the few tasks I can squeeze in between Google Meets and math homework.

The End of the Year and Looking ahead

I find myself doing this more and more in the hopes of a better tomorrow. I hope you are too. That we can put away this dismal year and start dreaming again.

Please stay safe this holiday season. I will talk to you in the new year.

Writing Update – September 29, 2020

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Welcome to the writing update for this month! It’s been two months since the last one. I can hardly believe how fast this year is flying by, yet feels like it’s lasted a decade…

Writing Update

For the last month I’ve been picking at a new series bible I’ve been putting together. This was a lesson I had to learn over the course of the Greystone series and the DSA Season One. With the amount of details, the cast of characters involved, and so many plotlines involved the bible has absolutely been crucial to making to sure the series stays consistent throughout.

My plan is to build a bible for each series going forward, plotting out each and every book in the series before Book One launches.

So right now, I am three books into a new series. They are outlined and the world building is set for the fourth. I’m loving it. Building story is my favorite thing in the world. It is also the least time consuming part of the process, if you can believe that.

Am I going to spill the beans on the new series? Not yet.

The Sad Truth

I’d love to tell you my next book is set for release. 2020, unfortunately, has not been kind to my writing schedule. 2021 will no doubt hold the fewest releases from me since 2016.

Why, you ask?

I’m playing teacher dad for my kiddos three days per week. It’s a learning curve, for me especially, and I’m focusing most of my energy to giving them the education they deserve.

So I’m dedicated to not drafting a book until I can put all my efforts into the task. I will continue to outline (I’ve outlined 10 books this year so far…) and to script new projects, but drafts will have to wait until the schedule clears.

That’s just the reality of the situation. I’ve tried to keep going, to push through, but it isn’t sustainable and rather than push out a subpar novel I want you to have the best experience possible with the books.

More Greystone and DSA is coming, I promise you this. Greystone is completely outlined. DSA Season Two is scripted and the first book is drafted. These are coming, as well as a whole lot more.

Army in the Obelisk

As for Army in the Obelisk? It’s pretty much set. But I want to wait until the second half of Greystone is closer to a realization. It makes sense for a better reading experience. When we get closer to that point, you will be the first to know.

I hope that makes sense. Part of me feels like this is a huge letdown, but really, it’s for the best. For you as a reader and for me as a writer. This year has been insane. Hopefully we can get back to normal sooner rather than later.

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